Latest / The Daily Writer / Own Your Keywords (with Steve Woodruff)

Transcript

Own Your Keywords (with Steve Woodruff) · The Daily Writer

0:01
SPEAKER_00: You have a business name.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: You have a product or service you offer.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: You probably have a website and a logo.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: But do you know your keywords?
0:11
SPEAKER_00: If not, you're missing out on a valuable tool that communicates how it is that you help people.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, hello, my friend.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: This is Kent Sanders from Inkwell Ghostwriting.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this episode of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: This is the show that helps you grow your business, amplify your authority, and increase your impact through the power of writing.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: As always, thanks so much for joining me today.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, a little while back, I came across an insightful post on LinkedIn by my friend Steve Woodruff, who is known as the King of Clarity, which is a really cool title, by the way.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: In this LinkedIn post, Steve was talking about the value of having keywords for your business.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't sure what he meant, so after a brief explanation, I invited him back on the podcast to give us some insights on using keywords for our business.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been listening to this show for a long time, you might remember Steve's first appearance back on episode 74.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: And even if you have been listening and don't remember that, that's okay.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: It's been quite a while back.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to go back and listen to that episode as kind of a precursor to this one, but you're going to get value out of this episode, even if you have not heard that one or if it's been a while.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, Steve is a consultant who helps businesses as well as individuals in career transition.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, Steve explains what keywords are, why they're important, how to decide on your keywords, and how to use them well.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: This is a fantastic episode that's packed with insights that you can put into practice in your business immediately.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: So lots of good stuff here.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's dive in.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Let's get right to the conversation with Steve Woodruff.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Steve, welcome back to the podcast.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: You are one of a handful of people who have the distinct honor of being a repeat guest.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: So welcome back.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: It's great to be here, Ken.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: So let me give our listeners a little heads up about where this episode came from.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: So I saw a post that you put on LinkedIn.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this has been probably a few weeks ago.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: And you were talking about the importance of knowing your keywords and using those keywords.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: And I found that really intriguing.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: So naturally I just said, hey, why don't you come on the podcast?
2:20
SPEAKER_00: And instead of me just asking you about it, let me ask you about it here in a public forum and we'll see where all this goes.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: So that was the genesis of this conversation.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: So I guess a good starting point would be what are keywords exactly?
2:34
SPEAKER_01: So I view keywords as being really important for anybody and everybody that's trying to express something.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: So if you are going to be the author of a book, there are going to be certain key themes that you really want to cover.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: And you're going to have these specific words or terms or ideas, they're going to come up over and over again.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: Those are your key words.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: And I use this the shortcut of hashtags.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: They're really like hashtags, uh, which we use in social media now very frequently to designate what something is about.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, when it comes to branding or marketing or a sales message or leadership or authoring or whatever, one of the most important exercises anybody can go through is laying out their key words.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: What are the things that I'm really going to be talking about, returning to again and again and expanding?
3:33
SPEAKER_01: And if you read a great book, it's going to have a theme that's developed, that's repeated, that's expanded.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: And some of those words are going to come up over and over again.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: And those are the key words.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes people very consciously decide the keywords ahead of time.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: And other times it just sort of tumbles out of them, and somebody on the outside can say, you know what, it sounds like these are the key concepts.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, actually, that is the key.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: Those are the key words.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: So I think it's crucial for anybody, whether it's a job seeker or uh an author or a speaker, to know their keywords and to build their entire vocabulary around those keywords.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it is it more of a process where we decide what our keywords are, like there's a conscious decision, or is it more a process of discovery where we do whatever it is that we do, and then over time we're discovering what's already there?
4:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it actually, I think generally speaking, it starts with a discovery process where these words begin to surface, and sometimes people become quite conscious all by themselves of their keywords, or other times they uh will maybe bounce it off of someone else, talk to someone else to try to help bring it to the surface.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then it it you sort of bring it to the surface.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: And what I find is that people's eyes really light up when you start to land on these key words, and they recognize, yeah, that's that's like a that's a main theme for me.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: That's a big deal for me.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then it becomes conscious.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: Then you start to say, Oh, okay, these are my key themes.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: These are this is what I'm all about.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: And that is a very liberating thing for a person or a company to discover their keywords and be able to say, uh, so that's what I want to be when I grow up, or that's really what I want to do now.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Can you give us any examples of individuals that you know or companies or brands where, like when you think of those entities, several keywords pop right into your mind.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Like they have so much clarity that you immediately would know what their keywords are.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: So, someone like uh Tesla.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Tesla's into all kinds of things, uh, things that don't necessarily look like they they're related to one another, except they're all related to innovation.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Tesla is all about innovation.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: And so whatever they do, it's disruptive innovation, and that's a key word.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Apple was very much all about user experience design.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: So, whatever device or software or system or platform, user system design, key word for them.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh just yesterday, one of my clients, I work a lot in the pharmaceutical industry, uh, Gilead Sciences, put out this full-page ad on the Wall Street Journal.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: And it's expensive.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll bet it was.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Creating possible uh is this new theme that they've got.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: And Gilead has always been a high science, high innovation company.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they came up with the first cure for hepatitis C.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: They've done a lot of groundbreaking work in HIV, uh, and they're they're really on the leading edge of a lot of stuff in in biotech.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: And they have these key words that are in this ad about impossible and possible and breakthrough and revolution and pursuing.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: And this really is their identity.
7:14
SPEAKER_01: This is what the the Gilead ethos is.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: And so by summing it up into something like creating possible, they are distilling down to certain keywords that sum their company up in the minds of their employees and in how they want the rest of the world to think of them.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: So I assume this process, on a corporate level at least, is probably tied to just thinking about their mission, their vision, those kinds of things.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: But for people who are who have like a solo company, writers, people who are maybe running their own business by themselves, how would we go about doing that as well?
7:52
SPEAKER_00: I assume we would involve some others in that process, maybe at some point.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: Usually you want to.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, as you know, one of the phrases I quote all the time is you can't read the label of the jar you're in.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: So uh many times we can't actually see clearly what our key strengths are.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it takes somebody else, and we've all had this experience, uh, where someone points out something to us, hey, do you realize how you're really good at this?
8:18
SPEAKER_01: Or you're I've never seen anybody as good as you.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: Or in a conversation I was having today with someone that was getting trying to get some career clarity, he was walking through all the different things he had done for years at different companies, and he didn't say the word, but I said, You sound like an entrepreneur.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: You've been you've been doing all this stuff, but you've got an entrepreneur's mindset.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: He'd never thought of himself that way, but it was to me as clear as day because of the way he was approaching life and work and new challenges.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: He had it written all over.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes it does take an outside view to settle on what are those things that really characterize you.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: Took me a long time to realize that one of my key words is analysis.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I approach everything in a very analytical way.
9:13
SPEAKER_01: And one of the reasons why I never flourished as a salesperson, I could never uh I didn't have the the kind of heart or drive or spirit of a salesperson.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: It's because I solve problems, I analyze and figure stuff out.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: That's different than hyping things, that's different than you know, the competition of getting the sale.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so it's very important for us to individually to understand our strengths and our keywords and our our approaches, uh, as well as as a company of any size to be able to say, you know, it's this kind of client we serve, it's this kind of problem we solve, and it's this is how we do it.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh and that's how you can then begin to differentiate yourself and come up with a message that's very, very specific.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Now talk about that for a second.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: You you've really got me curious here because you describe yourself as an analytical person.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: This is a podcast for business writers, many of whom would describe themselves in similar terms, you know, introverts, uh analytical, people who probably would prefer to spend their days dealing with words on the computer or words on the page than out amongst the people, you know, that kind of thing.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody, but a large percentage of writers are probably that way.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: So you have your own business.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: How do you think about sales then as someone who is more of an analytical person, self-described, not a great salesperson?
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Then how do you actually do sales?
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Is it more just relational?
10:43
SPEAKER_01: It is relational.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: So I am not a schmoozer salesperson.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: I am a deep relationship builder salesperson.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: I go on trust, I go on reputation, I go on sticking with my people for the long haul.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: So uh I'm not the kind of guy that's gonna be slapping the back uh, you know, in the bar and telling wild tales and you know, throwing hundred dollar bills at waitress.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: That's just not my I'm that's not me.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh so my way of selling is to know what I'm good at, know you know how I can best operate with people, and I know that my best way of selling is listening.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I get involved in one-on-one conversations with people, and I spend most of the time asking questions.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: And what that does is people get sold on me because I listen to them, I understand them, and I try to provide insight.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: And that creates a much stronger bond than just some superficial hand out the business card in a you know big toothy grin.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so I tend to have people that stay very faithful to me uh because I am very faithful with them.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: And so that's my that's my style.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's I believe me, I've tried, I've tried to be the classic salesman.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: I can't, I just I can't adopt those techniques.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: It's it's uh to use a biblical metaphor, it's like uh David wearing King Saul's armor, it doesn't fit exactly, it doesn't work, and I finally, after many years, decided, oh forget this, I just need to be who I am.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: See, that should come as a huge relief to a lot of people listening, and and it does to me as well, because so many times you see these people in in the space that we're in, you know, kind of the the online consulting entrepreneur sort of space.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm being intentionally vague with all that, but there's so many people who are so hyped up and they're doing all this crazy marketing and they're everywhere and they're hustling.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: So it's refreshing just to hear that perspective of, oh yeah, I'm I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna be loyal to people and develop deep relationships.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: That really takes the pressure off.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, for me, it's it works too.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not just a matter of style, it's a matter that I realize that when I go deep with people and I help them understand and I help myself understand them, then they can not only help me by referring me, but I can help by referring them to others.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: And when it comes to business networking and business relationships, the most important thing we can drive toward is how can we create referrals for one another?
13:28
SPEAKER_01: How can we support each other?
13:30
SPEAKER_01: How can I uh connect people I know with other people I know and make business happen?
13:36
SPEAKER_01: That's what drives me.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: I want that.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: I it doesn't matter whether I make X amount or Y amount or no amount.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: I really want to help people do their best work, find their best suppliers.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: And part of my business is a matchmaking business in the pharmaceutical industry between training organizations and pharma companies and training vendors.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: And I apply this analytical and matchmaking and networking to that business to where I help people find the right suppliers for their jobs and help my supplier partners find the right work with the right kind of clients.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: And it's absolutely wonderfully rewarding, but it's a very analytical approach to things.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: And kind of low-key and relationship-based.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, very much so.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: It's I I built it, I built my business 13 years ago around me.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: I decided to take a risk.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: I realized after two 10-year um uh times with different small companies that no one's gonna build their company around me.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: You're either gonna fit into somebody else's agenda, uh, or if if you really want to build something around you, you have to do it yourself.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I decided to do.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna take my strong suits, my network, what I had done, and try to create a business that was 100% Steve Woodruff.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I don't necessarily recommend everybody try that, and and you may not be ready at any given time in your career for that, but I was ready.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: And uh and it was really a uh a great thing because I've been able to evolve myself and my business along the way, and I don't have to get anybody else's approval to do it.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: So as we we think about this issue of keywords, is there any room in in discovering our keywords for things like personality assessments, strengths finder assessment, those kinds of things?
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Do you think those can help point us to the right keywords for our business?
15:34
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: So those are some of the lowest hanging fruit of keywords is doing the assessments of your makeups and your strengths.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: And and I highly recommend that people go through at least one or two of those, uh, especially strengths finders, because you really want to know what your wiring is.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: It's important to know your personal wiring, and that's what a lot of those things are all about.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so the combination of personal wiring and then the particular professional marketplace that you're in.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: So personal wiring won't tell you, for instance, necessarily whether you should be an HR or whether you should be do something in manufacturing or insurance.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: It won't necessarily tell you whether you should be part of a large company or a small company or a field salesperson or headquarter person.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: So it'll tell you some things about you, but then there are other aspects of the key words that have to do with the specific business opportunities that are best for you.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: And those have to be determined in a little bit more personal way.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it just depends on um a lot of your background and the things you've done and where your current professional footprint is, where your geographical footprint is.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so that's part of the art and science of doing uh career clarity consulting, uh, which I do is you combine the personality part with the track record part and the aspirational part of where somebody wants to go, and then you put all that together and say, all right, how what's the direction that we can go with this?
17:07
SPEAKER_01: How do we set a GPS for this particular person?
17:11
SPEAKER_00: So, can you give us some examples?
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Like when you describe you and your business, what are some keywords that you try to fit into your uh marketing, your material that you put out there online?
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Because I know you're very conscious about messaging and communication and all those things.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: So, what are some of your keywords that you that you use?
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Or are those secret?
17:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, no, they're hardly secret.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, so uh some of the keywords that you need to have are uh include your bad guy.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So every company uh should have a bad guy.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh that is the the enemy, the villain, the thing you are trying to help your client conquer.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh bad guys are very important.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: So there are a couple of keywords for me, bad guys.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: One is noise.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: And so if somebody reads my book, Clarity Wins, I start right off describing that the Goliath that every David is coming up against is the noise, the marketplace full of noise, and somehow we have to rise above it.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: So noise is one of my keywords.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh misalignment is one of my keywords.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: That if you can't get everybody on the same page, if you can't get people collaborating with the shared meaning of what you're actually trying to say, then there's no way you can get people aligned.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: So that's great.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: Misalignment and noise are two of my negative keywords.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, clarity, obviously, is one of my uh keywords.
18:34
SPEAKER_01: Um and uh another one, uh, interestingly enough, a little more subtle, uh, is the word understanding or meaning.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: That when we communicate, we can't just exchange words.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: We've got to make sure that we're actually transmitting a clear meaning in the other person's mind.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: And that's where uh a more careful and deliberate approach to communications has to come in.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you might exchange words and everybody nods their head and thinks they've understood each other when they haven't at all.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: And we've all been in those meetings where we all, yeah, yeah, that's what we're gonna do.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: And then you find out there are eight people and eight different interpretations of what just happened.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: That's a big corporate problem, by the way, and a leadership issue that uh leaders have to learn to practice some clear communication skills to ensure that not just words have gone out, but that people are aligned on meaning.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: So once we've identified, do you recommend what, four or five, maybe six keywords that we're using on a regular basis?
19:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh typically for any business, I I think you should settle on three to five, no more than that.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: That's generally all you're really gonna need to kind of mark out your pigeonhole.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: And other than that, then you start not having keywords, you start having you know large sets of bullet points, and you're right back to where you started again, which is You're back to PowerPoint slides.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're you're back to being vague and general and a commodity.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: So uh that's another one of my negative keywords, by the way, is commodity.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: Is we don't want to be, we don't want to be a commodity.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: If we're a commodity, we're forgettable.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: So somehow we have to differentiate, we have to find a way to express what we are that sets us out of the pack.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: And so the the opposite of commodity is differentiation.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: And I talk about those two keywords all the time.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: Very important for any small business, any individual.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: If you're just another real estate agent, if you're just another banker, if you're just another writer, if you're just another salesperson, well you're you're another penguin on the ice floe.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: You look and sound like everybody else.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: And that's not a good place to be in a noisy marketplace.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh so you can see how these keywords flow into each other, you know, differentiating and noise and and uh and commodity and those kind of things.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when you use an image like a penguin, and you can see my penguin behind me in the bookcase over there, uh leaning up against some of the books.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: I have two two comfort birds, a penguin and a pigeon.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: So the penguin is when you blend in with everybody else, and the pigeon is to remind you that you need to be in a pigeonhole that's very specific.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and your pigeonhole is described with your keywords.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: So it's a it's a wonderful exercise.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: It takes time, and there's a there's a certain evolving to it.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: You'll start out with a set of keywords and key phrases, and then your business may mature or morph, the marketplace may change, and so you have to make some some adjustments along the way.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: Um I've had mostly the same keywords for 13 years, but some some additions and and some modifications.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: So once you know what your three to five keywords are, what are some examples of places that we could intentionally use these?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: I assume social media, but there's a lot of other places as well.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: I assume social media is important and you know, writing up your blog posts or whatever, but a lot of What I want to help people do is effectively one-on-one networking.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: So you're going to have your most highest impact with people when you're face to face.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: And if you can use simple, straightforward language when you talk to another individual, including keywords, that's going to help them remember you.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: So what I advocate for any business is to develop a vocabulary.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: And I have come up with a framework that I call a 7S framework of brain-friendly forms of words that people can grab onto.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: So one of them is statements, very short, brief sentences that get right to the point and say this is exactly what or exactly who we serve, exactly how we do it.
22:52
SPEAKER_01: Another is snippets, and snippets are our hashtags and keywords and little tiny phrases.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: Another is stories, telling your origin story, telling success stories, telling case studies.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: These go right into the brain.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: Another is symbols, symbolic language, like a metaphor or a simile or illustration.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: Again, those are shortcuts into the brain.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: You have to use surprises because surprises wake the brain up and you go, oh, you know, king of clarity.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: What's the king of clarity?
23:22
SPEAKER_01: And it's something that gets attention because again, we're in a noisy world, so we need to be able to surprise.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: Using bad guys means you want to talk about the stakes.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: And I don't mean ribey's and and T-bones, I mean S-T-A-K-E-S.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: What's at stake?
23:39
SPEAKER_01: What's the important thing?
23:40
SPEAKER_01: What's the what's the the villain?
23:44
SPEAKER_01: What's the risk?
23:45
SPEAKER_01: So the brain, because of our survival mode, pays attention to high stakes.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: If I don't tell somebody that what we do or what we offer is high stakes, high importance, then why should they listen?
23:59
SPEAKER_01: And then the final thing is surprise.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: So statements, snippets, specific stories, symbols, surprises, and stakes.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: If you can create a vocabulary of those things for a business, you can communicate no matter what situation you're in.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: In a networking meeting or in a pitch or on a website, you're gonna tell this story, you can have this statement that you always pull out, you're gonna use this symbolic language, you're gonna say, you know, Kent Sanders is the Mercedes of ghostwriters for this particular type of author.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: And those are those things, those words and phrases are your way of getting into the mind of your audience.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: So the way that I uh right now, at least, explain what I do to people.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: So I could say, yes, I'm a ghostwriter.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't even really know what that means.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: There's kind of a mystique and um a vagueness to it.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: But the way that I frame it is I'm a ghostwriter for business leaders and entrepreneurs who are too busy running their own business to write their own content.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: So I help them to create their content uh to help them develop more authority and credibility.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Is that going the right direction toward that?
25:14
SPEAKER_00: I I feel like I need to refine that a lot more, but is that getting toward a more specific I I think I would put it this way.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I help talented business people who have a lot to say but don't have the time to put it into this format.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: And I'd always have a book with me.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's great.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: So you've you've got the visual, you've got the uh you're you're describing your target audience, talented business people.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: And you're not even saying ghostwriter, but you're implying it.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: They have a lot to say, but they need somebody to move from their heads to that.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, I do that.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: Bingo, that's all you need.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: That is so simple and so direct.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh it kind of makes me want to hire ghostwriter.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: Because when you when you put that adjective talented, that in my mind changes the whole frame of that.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Correct.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Because it's just reinforcing the fact that yes, you're a business person who has something valuable to say, but yet you're so busy being successful that you don't have time to say it in a book form.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: Which is exactly where ghostwriters come in.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Wow, I love that.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so uh I'll send you my invoice.
26:31
SPEAKER_01: But that's that's what I mean when I talk about statements or or keywords or simple, so your key words then become things like you know, talented business person, and and a subordinate term that you used is with another good one, a thought leader.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: So that's how you're going to describe your target audience.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have a couple of key words like talented business professional, thought leader, um, successful business leader.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: Those are your the words you're always gonna use.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: And then you're gonna say they've got a lot to say, a lot to offer, and they want to, but they just, you know, maybe they they hated English growing up, or maybe they have absolutely no time, or maybe they don't spell, I don't know, whatever it is.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: It's it's an art form, as you know, to take all the ideas in somebody's head and turn it into the pages of a book, and that's the magic that you do.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: And part of what you want to do in positioning yourself is you have to describe your magic.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: And when you go like this, we're gonna take it out of there and we're gonna put it here.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: That's magic.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: That's not that's great.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm a ghostwriter.
27:41
SPEAKER_01: No, it's magic.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Magic is so much more of a fun word than ghostwriter.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: Well, magic is telling people what your superpower is, and you've got to define what you do as a superpower.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: So my superpower is talking to people, distilling the thing down and coming up with words like we just did.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: So this is what we just did is my magic.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: This is what I do.
28:06
SPEAKER_01: I can't not do it.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a compulsion, it's it's wiring, it's it's almost an obsession.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: It is an obsession, in a way, I can't stop it, and uh nor do I want to.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it it's but I I know that that's what I do, that's who I am, and so that's what I do.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: And when you can find that superpower and put a couple words around it, that's what it brightens up your eyes and your mind and frees your tongue to talk about it, because you're more excited when you've got the right words to describe it.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's fantastic.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And I would encourage everybody listening to get Steve's book because you go into a lot more depth in the book about these kinds of things.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: So it is it is a great experience reading your book, but on every page I had to stop and go, oh man, I've got to really think about this because literally on every page there's insights.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I've got to stop and really think about it.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: And and it's one of those books, and I'm not just I don't say this to every guest on the podcast, by the way.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Just because somebody has a book, I don't just like heap praise on them, but it really is the type of book where you have to go through it slowly because it's challenging so many assumptions that I had, and it's giving me clarity on here's what I do, and here's how I can help people, and it's just really a gift.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: So really, really is a great book.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: No, I appreciate that.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: And and I uh my biggest compliment is uh whenever I see somebody that uh has the book or is using the book, and it's all dog eared and bookmarked and beaten up, and they're doing what you're talking about, and uh that's what I love because I've designed it to do that.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: I want people to go through it slowly and to figure stuff out as you go and to come to the end of that book with a much better message than when you started.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: So, after people read your book, what are some next steps they could steps they could take if they really want to dig into your head and have you help them figure all these kinds of things out?
30:13
SPEAKER_01: So I work with individuals and companies on uh what I call clarity leap sessions, which go anywhere from two hours to two days.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: And uh two hours is is typically an individual that's in career transition, two days is going to be a small to mid-sized company that maybe has multiple products and has a more complex offering, and then you know, everything in between for consultants and small businesses.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: And those sessions have a fairly straightforward way that they run.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, I ask a whole bunch of questions.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, I bring to the surface the themes.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: This is where we start to get the keywords out.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: It's all this the clarity session is is this is this process?
30:54
SPEAKER_01: And we start to identify all the keywords, start to create the statements, start to say, is this really you?
31:00
SPEAKER_01: It's really about an hour and a half, two hours in.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: I hold up a mirror and I say, Is this you?
31:05
SPEAKER_01: I think this is you.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: And that's the moment of truth where you go, holy cow, that's that's who I am.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm that's what we're all about.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: That's what our company does.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: And all that is harvested out of the stories of of what someone has done in the past.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: And then it comes down to, okay, now that we know what the core is, now let's finalize this into specific messages, specific statements, specific symbols.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: And my goal in doing a clarity session is to move individuals and company from one spot to a long way, it's like a it's an epiphany, it's it's moving to a big new spot and uh and kind of finalizing the brand, the direction, the key words.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Um companies I do some ongoing consulting or ongoing coaching, but a lot of what I do is sort of an intensive one or two-day thing.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh for those that don't think they can come up with it all on their own and they really want some outside help, that's what I do.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: It's as fun as I'll get out.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just want the biggest kickoff.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: I've had people crying, I've had people, you know, with their eyes go wide open, and I've and I've had a few people actually quail back a little bit at realizing who they were and try and wondering, can I actually change my course here?
32:31
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and that that's you know, sometimes they they have to take baby steps to get toward where they really want to go.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: Almost like a rebirth in some ways.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: A lot of the people that I do this with are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and they've had enough experience, enough exposure in the world, or their companies are maybe five or 10 or 15 years old, and they've tried a lot of things, and it's like, all right, uh I gotta I gotta get focused here.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: What are we gonna do when we grow up?
33:02
SPEAKER_01: And there are an amazing number of companies that are still drifting around, not quite sure who they are, and individuals drifting around that are not quite sure who they are, and they need a safe place to explore, you know, what am I really all about?
33:16
SPEAKER_01: And they can't necessarily talk to their coworkers or their boss about this or or anybody or their customers.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: And so I try to provide that safe area where we can deal with some of those issues and think it through and say, okay, if you're going to have a new direction, here's what it is, and here's why it's well founded on who you are.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's great.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: That's really great.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Any plans for a follow-up book or anything like that?
33:45
SPEAKER_01: Not that I can publicly not that I can publicly say my wife does not want to see me go through that again.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: Um yes, I I have a whole set of ideas that have been percolating ever since releasing the book almost a year and a half ago.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: So most of the book was focused on the outward-facing aspects of clarity, marketing message, sales message, referrals, all of that kind of business development stuff.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: But what I've done a lot of it in the last year, especially with my pharma clients, is working more on the inward-facing aspects of clarity, corporate alignment, departmental level branding, communication skills for corporate people, networking skills.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: How do you professionally network and have your own personal and professional brand?
34:33
SPEAKER_01: So I've got this whole other side of the clarity tree that is being built on the internal corporate side.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: And eventually I'm going to have to either write a second book or write a very expanded book that deals with all those elements that have been kind of coming up in the last year or so.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: It would be fascinating also to see some exploration of the individual's internal journey as they go through this process.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: Because we come into adulthood and we carry so many things from our childhood and things that we thought we should be when we grew up, and things that are just shackles on us psychologically and emotionally that that I'm sure as you work with people, all that stuff comes into play that you have to break out of and continually break out of.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: That's some of the most rewarding work I do is with individuals, is being able to say to an individual, do you realize how incredibly important this skill is?
35:32
SPEAKER_01: People have no idea.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: And and to have someone from the outside to validate them and encourage them and to say, you can take this and you do you realize you could do this with it?
35:44
SPEAKER_01: And they they're stuck, they're stuck in in old patterns of thought, never even thought about new possibilities.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: And to set people free to think in new ways about themselves and about their future is is absolutely glorious.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, Steve, you're doing incredible work in the world.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your book and appreciate you and your positivity.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: And wow, this is really, really good stuff that people need to hear.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: So looking forward to uh to all the stuff that you're that you're doing and continuing to interact with it.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks for having me on the podcast again.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: It's always a pleasure to talk to you, Ken.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: It's been a blast.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: Alrighty.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, that was a blast chatting with Steve about keywords and so many related topics as well.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Here are my three biggest takeaways from this conversation.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the best way to sell is by listening.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: Now that's one of those truths that when you hear it, it's kind of profound because it's so simple, but yet so often we don't do it.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, the number one emotional need that people have is to feel loved, affirmed, and accepted.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: But so many times we're too busy posting things on social media, we're creating content, and we're just simply too busy talking, and we don't actually stop and listen to people.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: So I challenge all of us, including myself, to maybe talk less and listen more.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you've seen the musical Hamilton or if you've listened to the soundtrack, you know what Aaron Burr says towards the beginning of the whole show.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: He tells Hamilton, talk less, smile more.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: So if we can do more of that, I think that would be really good.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: And if we can smile while we're listening, all the better.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: Takeaway number two, build your business around your strengths.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: And I loved this insight that Steve gave us.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: And this is why, by the way, I like having Steve as a guest because he's always dropping these little amazing pearls of wisdom.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you, what is it that you enjoy doing?
37:42
SPEAKER_00: What are you good at?
37:43
SPEAKER_00: Where do you shine?
37:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, we see others who have successful businesses, but it doesn't mean that we're gonna be good at those same things.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to be yourself and do what you love and find a way to make a good living doing that.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Find a way to add value to people and to make income because you're gonna do much better if you're doing something that you enjoy.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to be somebody else and replicate their success.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: Focus on what you enjoy doing and where you can really serve people in the most amazing way possible.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, takeaway number three is to include your bad guy in your keywords.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is kind of a fun insight.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: Who is the enemy in your business?
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Who is the villain or the bad guy?
38:27
SPEAKER_00: So for me, for example, in my ghostwriting business, my villain or my bad guy is busyness.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: It's people being too busy to write books.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's also the confusion and the complications of the book writing process.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Those are my enemies.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to slay those enemies, if you will, by my service.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to make it easy for people to get a book because I'll ghostwrite it for them or I'll help them with developmental editing or coaching or whatever it is, whatever whatever it is that they need.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: But think about who the villains are in your business.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Who are the bad guys?
39:01
SPEAKER_00: What is the pain point you're trying to eliminate for people?
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, those are three really fun takeaways that uh Steve gave us in this conversation.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Those are really valuable to me, and I hope that they're helpful to you as well.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: I want to give a massive thank you to our amazing guest, Steve Woodruff.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Make sure to check out his website, stevewoodruff.com, and also grab his book, which is called Clarity Wins.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: It is a great book that has helped me a lot.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And once again, thank you so much for listening.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: I truly appreciate your support of the show and uh lending your time and attention to this episode.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: As always, remember that you can find lots more resources for writers at KentSanders.net.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: And until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.